Dear NYTimes Crime Beat,
With all due respect to the reporters and editors at the Times, this story is disgusting.
What is the news here? That a young autistic man gives hugs to people in the park? The story is callous and derisive towards Mr. Himmelstein, and I don't think that's right. Every person interviewed for this piece calls him a "creep." I understand he allegedly assaulted someone, so the label of "aggressive" might be fitting, but "creep"? Come on.
Also, where does Michael Wilson get off telling readers how to think about this person? In the 10th graf the 20 year old man in question is referred to as a "creepy legend." If I am not mistaken in saying that his mom (the subject of the rest of the graf) did not call him that, why is this sentence included in the story?
I have no qualms with the Times, but I wish you had put some more thought into this story.
Regards,
Matt
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Matt,
Thanks for your note. But I only count one use of the word "creep" in the story, right? "They thought he was with friends. Not becoming a creepy legend."
The "legend" that the student mentioned ("He's like a legend at our school") was indeed creepy. He is not a legend at the school because he is cute or charming — which he can be, to passing tourists, as the piece describes up top. The point of my piece was to humanize the legend. To say to the reader, this guy is not a creepy guy, but rather, a troubled young man from a seemingly good home.
His parents definitely thought what he was doing was creepy.
So, put another way, the "news" here is not that an autistic man is giving hugs in the park, but rather, that the man who is giving hugs in the park, and whose arrest for assault was publicized, is in fact autistic.
I hope that explains my thought process in this matter, which was not taken lightly. On the contrary.
Best,
Michael Wilson
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Hi Michael,
Thanks for explaining your thought process. I'm going to take you at your word. However, despite your intentions, this article fails to humanize this man and does more harm than good. I'll tell you why.
Your story amounts to a work of fear-mongering. The reader doesn't learn that Mr. Himmelstein is autistic until deep in the 12th graf, after you--yes, you--have already labeled him "creepy," "angry" and "sullen." Your editorializing ("...creepy legend ...") early in the article establishes a lens through which the reader sees Mr. Himmelstein. In the remaining grafs, he cannot escape this label you've built for him because the quotes from his clearly exasperated, overwhelmed mother and the details of the alleged assault only reinforce this idea (that YOU created, let me remind you) that Mr. Himmelstein is a sullen, angry creep. I don't have any trouble reading between the lines. It clear your thoughts on this man (your email above says he "is indeed creepy") harm the objectivity of your article, and in doing so disparage Mr. Himmelstein.
Where is the sympathy for his condition? If you were trying to humanize him, why not discuss what it means to be autistic? Why not try to delve into the lives of an autistic person and the people around him/her? There's no discussion, no mention even, of what autism is. Indeed, the word is only used in the article once, as if you're trying to obscure the fact that he is autistic.
Autistic people lead very different lives from you or me. What may seem like a normal, everyday activity for one of us may be very challenging for a man in Mr. Himmelstein's situation. Learning and adapting to social queues and rules is one area where disabled individuals struggle in particular, and it's partially because they are consistently labeled "others" or "weird" or "strange" (or "creep," see?). Men and women in Mr. Himmelstein's situation need our sympathy and care. They don't need to be the subject of a trashy, disparaging Crime beat articles.
While you might have wanted to humanize this man in your story, it's clear that your thoughts bled into what was supposed to be an objective report about an alleged assault. Sure, it's important to bring events like this to light, particularly if we are going to raise awareness about autism and disabled members of society. In this case, however, it would have been better not to write anything at all.
Regards,
Matt
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Matt,
Again, the last thing I want to ever do is write a trashy column. I didn't get into this business to pick on autistic people. In the small universe that is NYU and Washington Square, this young man was already well known and somewhat notorious. My piece was intended to tell a bit about the man himself. Not to take anything away from your feelings about the piece, I'd mention that I received positive feedback from other readers and suggestions for city programs available to the family, which I passed along to the mother.
You remind me that certainly not everyone had heard of this man before my piece, and that I was indeed "introducing" him to most of my readers. Your feelings about how I failed at that introduction are food for thought for my future work. Thank you.
Best,
Michael
